Posted by
Valkyrie Ice on 08/30 at 05:08 PM
I'm surprised that I've never before heard of Khannea, considering the fact that I share similar goals, however, unlike her, I'm fully aware that the "Me" in SL is the "Real Me" that I cannot be IRL due to the unfortunate genetic accidents of birth that have condemned me to being in a body that is at odds with my mental identity.
If you've ever read any of my posts here, or on other transhuman sites, or examined my profile, you will find the only "photo" of me is from SL, because that's what my "mental self image" is.
Khannea sounds like she is undergoing the same sort of "escape" from the confines of the genetic lottery that I did in SL, and that many others have found as well. I do wonder if she is from a culture in which "transexualism" is even more repressed than it still is in the USA, even after decades of recognizing that trans-sexuals have a very real genetic condition that results in a brain that has undergone the typical development for a gender opposite that of the body.
But transexualism is not the sole form of liberation that such worlds offer, for as I have often tried to point out, VR allows anyone to be "who they are mentally" as opposed to "Who they are forced to be by others expectations"
In the "real world" we are stuck being "people" that we are really only pretending to be. We have to conform to what those around us "expect" us to be, based on the "body" we were stuck with by genetic accident. If you are male, you are expected to "act male" or else you are labeled "a freak". If you are physically large or naturally athletic, you are expected to be aggressive, competitive, and seek dominance through sports. If you are physically weak, you are forced to be "a geek" Because of these "demands" that are constantly forced on us by the expectations of others, we all have to wear "masks" over the "real us".
Most people wear these masks so easily that they never realize it. Some, like me, can never forget the fact that they are forced to wear a mask at all times. If I sought to act as I am naturally inclined too, and as I usually do when in SL, I would be denied employment, be shunned as an outcast, and looked down on almost universally. Why? Because my body and my mind are in direct opposition to each other. I can't be a extroverted, uninhibited tease, who likes to flirt, but who doesn't let you forget I have a brain as well. In real life I have to be an introvert, and conceal my true self from everyone, lest I be shunned.
But this shackle of happenstance is gone online, where I am free to finally simply be myself, and not wear that mask I must don to step out of my own home.
And I am not alone in understanding this freedom. I've encountered thousands of people just like me online, people who are happy to just finally be free from the masks that they have forced on them by other peoples expectations and stereotypes.
But this is changing, and it's going to create far more changes as it does so.
SL may or may not be "compelling" to someone sitting at a keyboard looking at a screen, but that's because it's so limited. We are already well along the path towards making portable VR devices out of our smartphones, creating devices that will inevitably create that "seemless" merger of the real and the virtual, and in so doing, create a world in which no-one has to hide behind a mask anymore.
I've discussed this at length in a series of articles I wrote for H+ titled "Virtualization" which can be found here:
http://hplusmagazine.com/editors-blog/virtualization-rise-avatar-open-sim-project
http://hplusmagazine.com/editors-blog/virtualization-avatar-mirrorworlds-part-two
http://hplusmagazine.com/editors-blog/virtualization-virtual-reality-part-3
To sum up, VR will likely result in a world in which "Avatars" have become a common sight, so much so that it will drive research into numerous high technology fields, with the primary goal being to enable people to not just look like their inner selves virtually, but to be able to do so in "Real Life" by creating the means to enable all humans to have morphological freedom, simply at first, by allowing cosmetic surgeries that are cheap and reversible that can allow everyone to "perfect" their appearance (basically allowing anyone to become a "10") and progressing to the point in which the human body can be reshaped at will, including such radical changes as those needed to allow me to assume any of the forms I commonly wear in SL, be it my "True Form" as a succubus, or my most commonly worn alternate as a "Neon Jackal" anthropomorph.
We are rapidly approaching the day that Khannea desires, and I have yet to see any real signs that say differently. It's a future that is being driven by human nature, and will result from human nature, and ready or not, humanity is going to have to cope with a future in which the masks that hide our inner selves are tossed aside by an ever growing number of people who have rejected the "genetic lottery" of their bodies to become the selves that they have always been, but were forced to hide.
If Khannea would like to discuss this further, please let her know I would be happy to talk with her, because it appears we have a lot in common.
Oh, and for the record, I've lived quite happily in SL for over five years without ever having bought land, or having a paid account. I make all my linden from costume contests and tips dancing. Owning land in SL is highly overrated.
But then, I happen to agree with Henry George. "Ownership" of land is a fiction we humans have created, and it's one that we will have to eliminate eventually. It's sole purpose is legitimize the subjugation of "non land owners" by the "privileged". While we've come a long way from the early days when land ownership was the exclusive province of the ruling aristocracy, the fact remains that the entire planet is a joint property of not only the human race, but of every single living creature upon it. We all have to share this globe, and the entire rest of the universe it is in, and we have to realize that no-one has an exclusive right to resources that we all need to survive.
Posted by
Giulio Prisco on 09/02 at 04:53 AM
I am surprised Khannea and Valkyrie had not met each other yet.
I recommend the post quoted by Khannea on her own blog, it is a much expanded version of this one, with many comments.
Posted by
Khannea Suntzu on 06/28 at 10:55 AM
The irony with that one is that the left side of my face is paralyzed. So as much as the vortex calls me to take me up in that torrent of flotsam just below the surface the mask remains unflinching, unbroken, static as cut in marble.
One side of me will never frown, yield, flinch or smile. The only thing that side can do is shed tears.
That was the side you made me watch?
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